The Hunted

by Wolfepup

Jedi Knight Tari and his Padawan Karra must hunt the hunter...a hunter whose trophy are lightsaber crystals.

All the usual disclaimers, blah blah. But, all of the characters besides Yoda are from the dusty corners of my own mind, please don't use them, I have…other plans in store for them in upcoming stories. ;)

Historian's Note: This story takes place roughly 100 years before Phantom Menace

Rating: PG-13

The world is wide, and I will not waste my life in friction when it could be turned into momentum.

-Frances Willard

Prologue

The world was wide and vast, golden plains dotted with stands of trees vanishing far past the horizon. Everywhere she looked, the gently rolling land was devoid of all life except her. Even the animals that should have danced their eternal dance of life and death were nowhere to be found. She wrapped her four arms around her shoulders, shivering in the warm afternoon breeze.

He was after her.

She could sense it, a dark blot drifting on the currents of the Force. Its hungry thoughts wafted to her, wanting its bounty. For several weeks, it had followed her to the furthest reaches of inhabited space, chasing her, pursuing her, never showing any signs of slowing down. In fact, the farther and faster she ran, the more determined her tormentor seemed to become

She hoped it was just her imagination.

A small copse of trees arching over the top of a small spring shielded her from prying eyes. But the softly rustling leaves provided no peace for her. She could sense It coming closer.

Closer.

She stifled a gasp as she sensed the oncoming wave of power. There was no way she could avoid it. It was close, too close.

A burst of light, and she was gone.

The Hunted

Tari looked up form the pad he was studying, stormy gray eyes peering into the Force. Karra, his hotheaded Padawan, practiced solo fighting moves with her vivid blue lightsaber. Her moves were graceful, unconcerned, the Force guiding her.

The grass rustled slightly under her feet. Tari sat near the edge of the small clearing, a Republic guard leaning against a sleek landspeeder just before the tree line. The guard tilted his head to one side as he conferred with his small communications device. Although much too far away to be heard, Tari still sensed the guard's worry and agitation. Something was wrong. The lanky Jedi stood and walked over to him.

The guard was just putting the device into his pocket when Tari approached. "What is it?"

"Bad news, I'm afraid," the guard began. "A Jedi has gone missing."

Tari clenched his jaw, worried. "Do you know who it was?" Tari asked softly.

"Infinnnitara, at least that's how I think you pronounce her name."

"Never knew her." Karra stopped her lightsaber practice, her blue blade hissing home. Vibrant emerald eyes looked out from over her small muzzle, worried.

She stretched her long legs and trotted over to Tari and the guard in a few strides. "What is it? I sense trouble."

The guard nodded solemnly, choosing his words carefully, he spoke, "Jedi Knight Infinnnitara was lost a few days ago."

Tari chewed absently on his bottom lip. "I have a feeling that I need to see where she was last seen."

"I can arrange that. There is a small port not too far from here with a Republic outpost. We should be able to find a transport easily. And since you are not here on official business, I don't think your council would have any problem with you investigating. I know the planet this report came from, and you two are the closest Jedi."

"And I think you would have made a good Jedi, if you could have used the Force." The guard smiled under Tari's compliment.

Karra carefully hooked her lightsaber to her belt. "Well, what are we waiting for?"

Tari smiled at her impatience, but deep inside he was concerned. Infinnnitara was not the first Jedi to disappear under unusual circumstances, in fact such disappearances were quite rare. This one, however, was tainted by the smallest hint of hunger. It made him uneasy thinking about it. He didn't much like the thought of taking his Padawan with him on such a mission, but Karra was growing up, becoming a smart young woman. And in a few years, she would be ready to take a Padawan of her own.

The guard readied the landspeeder, Karra assisting him. Tari watched the breeze play with her blue-tinted black hair. His own dark brown hair was firmly tied back at the nape of his neck. It seemed just a few months ago that he had asked her to be his Padawan. But a few years had passed in the breath of a few minutes. His young Padawan had grown up in front of his eyes.

Karra looked over her shoulder, her vivid green eyes shocking against her light gray, softly furred skin. With a small, knowing laugh, she flung her Padawan braid over her shoulder and leapt gracefully into the 'speeder.

With a soft shake of his head, Tari walked up to the 'speeder.

"Are you coming?" Karra had one arm hanging over the edge of the sleek craft, toying with a leaf she had plucked from a nearby tree.

"When you move over." As fast as thought, Tari grabbed firmly onto the side of the 'speeder and vaulted in, his Padawan moving just in time to avoid being sat on.

"Jedi never seem to amaze me," the guard stated. "One minute dour and quiet, the next playing with each other!"

"It's how we keep sane," Tari smiled back.

The guard smiled, but sobered when he noticed Tari's suddenly serious expression. He cleared his throat delicately and prodded the sleek landspeeder into flight.

The port rose out of a long wide valley, graceful white spires nestled among tall green trees. The sparkle of the sun on a wide, calm river glinted from where it snaked trough the valley. Sweet scents of trees wafted up from the peaceful city.

But the disappearance of Infinnnitara darkened Tari's thoughts. He had met her once, a few weeks after he had arrived at the Temple. What memories he did have of her were faint, indistinct. The soft, haunting smell of cinnamon, soft yellow hair, so light in color to be almost white, drifting on an errant breeze.

Tari could feel Karra's eyes boring into him. "I barely remember her," he began. "She left soon after I joined the Temple."

"Then it's a wonder you remember her at all," Karra remarked. "You were two when you entered, right?"

He nodded; stormy gray eyes fixed on the approaching spires. "In a memory exercise of Yoda's, he had us focus on a face from our distant past. I guess I chose her. Most choose family, old friends."

Karra smiled softly, the wind tossing her Padawan braid around her throat. "But you, the stubborn Jedi that you are, had to go and pick a face that you had barely seen."

Tari turned to face her, smiling. "How well you know me."

"I know you are far too hard on yourself at times." She poked her Master playfully on the arm. "But you have gotten better. Maybe I am a good influence on you after all."

The guard stifled a chuckle. "I hate to interrupt your discussion, but we are almost at our destination."

A long, low domed building emerged from the trees, its white roof mimicking the clouds. One end was open, a gaping mouth welcoming weary travelers to the peaceful city. With practiced ease, the guard swung the sleek craft into the orifice.

As soon as it settled to the hanger floor with a whoosh of repulserjets, Tari swung gracefully out, the guard following. Tari watched him walk over to a group of similarly clad guards to converse with them in low, whispered tones. Karra nimbly leapt out the 'speeder, landing and adjusting her robes.

"I hope he gets us that fast transport I see over there," she remarked, smoothing her hair back.

Tari motioned to the guard with his chin. "He's walking back over here."

They stood patiently. The older Jedi mulled over how his hotheaded Padawan had grown up. No longer did she fidget while she waited, nor did her anger rise as quickly. She was learning to control her impulses; soon she would be a full Jedi Knight. Tari smiled to himself. Karra knew he was watching her, and glanced up at her Master.

Karra turned away from him, her vivid green eyes riveted on the approaching guard.

"I have good news," he stated. "Those guards just told me that they have a fast transport that was just serviced. None of them are willing to test fly it, and they said I could as long as it was back in a few days."

Tari nodded. "That should be enough time to find what we need to."

"Are you sure?" Karra looked up at him, her eyes questioning softly.

"Fairly sure. If it is foul play, I doubt the being in charge of it would still be on that world. Especially with a pair of Jedi on the way."

Karra nodded her agreement. With a flourish of his hands, the guard herded his Jedi charges towards the graceful craft that Karra had admired earlier.

Sleek silver and gray lines defined the craft lording over its corner of the hanger bay. It stood out in stark contrast to the pure white walls that were so prevalent in the city. Its loading ramp waited for them, the craft's pilot scurrying around in his last preflight checks.

Tari nodded a greeting to him before disappearing into the craft, Karra one step behind. The guard paused, speaking with the pilot in hushed tones.

"How much longer, Kemit?"

"Not too much, just have to finish up," Kemit replied, his attention firmly focused on the engine cowl.

The guard smiled, walking up the ramp. "I'll be waiting for you in the cockpit. Just like the old days, huh Kemit."

"Just don't kill me, R'utano. As I recall, you almost did last time."

R'utano held his hands out in defeat. "This time we have Jedi cargo. I hope that makes a difference." He vanished into the craft, Kemit's laughter following him aboard.

Tari and Karra stood in the middle of a vast golden plain dotted with random patches of trees. He scowled at the horizon. The Force was tinted darkly here, fear danced among the errant breezes.

"I sense a disturbance," Karra whispered. "What could have caused it?"

The older Jedi raised his chin a fraction, testing the currents of the Force. With his eyes closed, he replied, "Fear, hate." He started to walk towards a small clump of trees.

Karra trotted to keep up with him, her dark lightsaber resting on her hip.

The trees parted before the hands of the Jedi, deep shadows hidden among their boughs. The taint of fear and anger was strongest. Tari eased into a small clearing wedged under a tree. The branches were broken, the ground scuffed. Silky strands of white-yellow hair fluttered from ragged branches. Karra had followed his lead into the clearing, and what she saw made her gasp.

Infinnnitara's lightsaber lay on the ground, ripped open. Circuits snaked out of the slender, overly long, casing, bright flashes of color in the dark green shadows.

"Why is the crystal missing?" she whispered softly, one hand held to her mouth.

"It's a message, I'm not sure what it means, but it can't be good." Tari sat back on his haunches, staring at the disemboweled weapon. "I have to contact Yoda."

"Bad, this development is." Yoda's gravely voice spoke through the comm system. Tari could almost hear a hint of concern.

"What do you think the missing crystal stands for?"

"That, I do not know. Careful, you must be. A great disturbance, I sense."

Tari nodded, Karra's tension a palatable sensation behind him. "Have there been any more disappearances?"

The sadness in Yoda's voice was painfully evident. "Yes, Mak, Master Mar-Aroon's Padawan learner."

Karra gasped, "I know him. We went to the Temple together."

Tari patted his Padawan's arm. "We will find out what is happening here, Master Yoda."

"Have no doubt of that, I do. Ever mindful of the Force, you must be, Tari." Coordinates to Mak's last known location were downloaded into Tari's comm system. "Fast, you must be."

The urgency in his Master's voice echoed powerfully down the connection. Tari bid his farewell and instructed Kemit to travel as fast as possible to the coordinates. This was the greatest threat to the survival of the Jedi since the Force-sensing Wallana. The long-dead Wookie had a way to sense if an unborn child could use the Force. In her rage at being expelled from the Temple, she had murdered every unborn Jedi she encountered. Her older sister, Lahala, had hunted her from one end of the galaxy to the other, hoping to reclaim her. The dark path Wallana had taken soon shattered Lahala's hope.

Tari was still young, the emptiness of his recently lost Master burning in his chest, but he could remember the regret in the older Wookie when Lahala's well-aimed blaster removed Wallana's threat from the universe forever.

Now, there was another threat. One that Tari was determined to root out.

Tatooine was not one of Tari's favorite worlds, yet somehow he always seemed to end up here. Its hot sands and bustling ports baked under the twin suns. In a fortress just outside one such port, Wallana's body lay desiccated, mummified under the extreme conditions of the planet.

Karra didn't understand her Master's unusual quietness. He stood at the viewport, watching the planet rotate slowly under them. She waited next to him, her vivid green eyes boring into the side of his head.

"Remember the stories about the rouge Wookie who could sense the unborn Jedi and then killed them?" he asked softly.

Karra chewed on her lip, thoughtful. "Yes. The older initiates would tell those stories to the younger ones on dark nights."

"They're true," Tari whispered.

She looked at him in shock. They were supposed to be tales to be passed on in the dark of the night. Stories to thrill and frighten, all while keeping one's distance from true fear. They added a touch of excitement to the day to day routine of Temple life. But now her Master had just told her they were true.

He must have sensed her fear. "She was vicious, but nowhere near as bad as she was in the stories. If you take the bones of what was told, you have Wallana." He paused, staring at his reflection in the viewport. "We are not going to where she was."

Karra couldn't help but to sigh in relief.

This planet was as hot and as miserable as the last time he was here. The pilot and the guard opted to stay with the ship. Tari didn't blame them. Karra stood next to him, pulling her hood over her eyes to shield them from the glare. "Why would anyone live on this world?"

Tari looked at the bustling street just outside their hanger. It was morning, and business was in full swing. "Because they want to."

Beings of all shapes, sizes, and colors scurried from one business to another. Some merchants had set up shop in cool corners under tents and stalls. Others had procured buildings and carts. Beasts of burden tromped down the streets, their backs loaded with every sort of imaginable cargo.

With a slight sigh, he waded into the crowd, Karra on his heels.

The location of Mak's disappearance was not hard to find. The same taint of anger and fear directed Tari to a small, dark alley. The heat was not as intense here, even in early morning. Trash lay scattered about. Dark, deep red spatters decorated the corner of a wall. Bits of fabric lay strewn about the garbage. Tari knelt to investigate the stains. He flaked off small bits of it, letting the samples fall into a small analyzing device.

Blood. Human. Midi-Clorians.

It was Jedi blood. The shadows danced around the stains, drawing his attention to a slightly different shade of deep red. The analyzer soon worked on the new samples.

Blood. Unknown species, possibly half-Human. Trace midi-clorians.

Tari sat back on his heels. The taint of anger was stronger in the new sample. He chewed thoughtfully on one lip, reaching with the Force, deeper into the residue of emotion.

A struggle, brief but intense. Pain, a small injury. Anger, but a cool, calm, calculated hunt, a predator stalking its prey. The pungent taste of Mak's fear on the winds.

The hunter was Force-sensitive. Perhaps not near strong enough to be trained, but strong enough to use it to hunt its prey.

Karra eased into the alley, reluctant to enter. "What did you find?"

"Our hunter is a Force user."

She inhaled sharply. "Like Walanna?"

"I'm afraid so." Tari stood, holding the analyzer delicately. He sensed the key to finding the hunter lay within the mysterious sample.

"I was talking to a merchant who has her shop just around the corner from this alley," Karra motioned with one arm down the length of the alley, towards the blinding sunlight beyond. "She says that she saw a disturbance here a few days ago, a young, yellow haired man being chased by someone not much larger than he was."

"Anything else?"

Karra shook her head, "No, the merchant said she had shoplifters to worry about, rather than some runaway boy."

Tari nodded slowly. "I think I should go talk to her."

The merchant's shop was claustrophobic. Thick shelves sprouted from the rounded baked mud walls, heavily loaded with all manner of merchandise. Unpleasant odors of too much stuff in too small a room, too often sold in the condition it had arrived in, assaulted the Jedis' nose. Karra hid a soft sneeze behind one hand.

A heavyset, blue mound of a being, lifted its head up at Karra's sudden noise. "Back again?" it rasped. "I thought you were done bothering me."

"She is," Tari stepped closer, ducking under a cable of some kind that draped from the darkened ceiling.

The merchant looked the lanky Jedi from head to toe. "You people are disgusting, all cloth and bone." She wrinkled her nose. "But I like your eyes. What is your question?"

Tari smiled slightly, but soon was all business. "A friend of ours was kidnapped. We would like any information you may know, or you could direct us to anyone that might have seen more."

She rubbed her round chin with one pudgy blue hand. "A reasonable request." She pointed at the taller Jedi with a finger. "But it will cost you."

"I understand."

The merchant eased her rotund form with surprising grace out of behind the counter. Not once did she wobble or stagger, but flowed as if she was the dust drifting throughout her shop. She stopped in front of Tari, her head level with his midsection. With one pudgy hand, she grabbed hold of his robes and pulled him down to look at her in the face. "I know who and what you are, Jedi," she whispered. "Leave this wretched rock before the dark man I saw gets you like he did that boy. I have no wish to see another of your people murdered because of what you are. I saw that happen to my family, and I am not going to see it happen to you. I told your Padawan all that I knew."

She looked around, sharp dark eyes penetrating every corner. "Leave now, and be safe."

Tari nodded, sensing the truth in her words. He stood, straightening his robes. "I thank you for your assistance."

The day had progressed while they were inside the alley and the dark, cramped shop. Waves of heat assaulted them as they wove among the diverse beings milling about the street. Most were going about their business, but a few waited, hunted for unwary travelers. With a glance, Tari warned Karra about them.

With flash of her green eyes, she signaled her understanding.

A few merchants were closing down for the hottest part of the day, buttoning down their shops against intruders.

Their ship, safely nestled in the hanger, beckoned to them. Karra wiped the sweat of her brow, eager to be free of Tatooine's oppressive heat.

Tari lingered in the hanger after Karra had scampered up the ramp into the ship. A stray bit of sunlight glinted off of a bright bit of metal just behind the ramp. He knelt down for a closer look. Dread filled him.

"Master, what is it?" Karra's soft voice echoed down to him.

"Mak's lightsaber," he whispered. The slender tube, decorated with geometric designs of the Padawan's homeworld, lay bent and broken, its inner circuits strewn about, the crystal torn out of its housing.

Karra barely repressed a shudder of fear. "The hunter knows we are here."

Tari stood, the lightsaber cradled in his hands. "We must be careful."

Karra paced the corridors of the small transport, arms wrapped around her chest. Twice she had seen the devastation of the lightsabers of the kidnapped Jedi. Each weapon was as much an individual as its owner, carefully constructed with handpicked materials. The two ravaged lightsabers now rested in Tari's room, each in its own box. Like little coffins.

She chewed on her bottom lip. For six years, she had been Tari's Padawan, through good times and bad. Karra was the first to admit that she feared for her Master, prone to injury as he was. But in all her years with him, nothing scared her more than a pair of disemboweled lightsabers.

Kemit wandered the corridors as well, head bowed in thought. The transport was small, ringed with one main corridor and a few smaller ones leading to all corners of the ship. His thoughts appeared to be on his toes. Karra stopped him, seconds before he ran into her.

"Kemit," she began softly, "It's late, you need to get some sleep before we leave."

"I don't like being here," he whispered. "Where is your Master so I can request that we take off and leave this wretched rock." Karra stepped back from the fear in his voice. But, he wasn't being irrational; she has been thinking the same thing.

"He told me that he had to find an analyzer shop."

"Why?" Kemit growled.

Karra chewed on her lip, reluctant to say too much about their evidence. "We found a substance where Mak disappeared. Master Tari wanted to find out what it is before we left."

Kemit snorted, talking as he stomped past Karra down the hall. "Then tell him to hurry. I'm starting the preflight checklist. I won't leave without him, but he needs to hurry."

She sighed, a knot of apprehension forming in her gut.

Tari trudged back to the transport, his pockets lighter of credits, but his heart full of dread. Their hunter was a Force-user, but not a strong one. He doubted their hunter even knew that he could use the Force.

Evening was falling over the city, and beings of all kinds emerged from the shadows to take advantage of the approaching coolness. Tari shouldered his way past a great many beings, careful not to disturb whatever load they were carrying. The analyzer had not been able to pinpoint the species.

He stepped from the main bustle of the road and into the shelter just outside of the hanger. He sensed a disturbance, a deep urging hunger through the Force. The hunter was near. Tari backed into the hanger, all senses alert, one hand on his lightsaber.

He could sense the hunter, a dark shadow just on the edges of his perception. But he could not see it. Tari reached out with the Force, letting it flow over every corner of the hanger, around the support struts of the transport. The hunter was not on the ship, it was in front of him, towards the street.

The lightsaber was a comforting presence in his hand as he stepped farther back, attempting to lure the hunter out of the shadows. But, the hunter must of known its quarry was aware of it. The dark shadows of anger settled, hidden, away from the Jedi and his ship. Tari sensed resignation, a knowing that the hunt would not be successful today.

Tari relaxed his hold on his lightsaber, walking to the transport, all senses still alert. If the hunter was a Force-user, then there was a possibility that it could sense Tari as well as the Jedi could sense it. He couldn't take the chance of leaving the ship unguarded, not with Karra, Kemit, and R'utano inside.

Today, there was nothing else that he could do about the hunter.

A low rumble filled the hanger as the transport powered its engines. The ramp lowered, and Tari eased quickly up the ramp.

Karra greeted him, worry creasing her brow. "What did you find out?"

"Our hunter is Force-sensitive. The analyzer was unable to find out what species it is." He motioned to the hanger with his chin. "And it's out there somewhere."

A spike of worry emanated from his Padawan. He held up a hand to calm her. "I think it was a stand off. Once I was able to sense him, he backed off."

She nodded slowly. "But I don't sense the living Force as well as you do."

"Neither do Mak or Infinnitara," his tone was grim.

Kemit did not understand Tari's decision to stay in orbit around the wretched planet Tatooine. He hated that world, and all of the hate and pain that its Hutts and slavery stood for. He paced the bridge, angry eyes glued to the amber planet below, its twin suns hidden behind its bulk.

Tohe had called him while he was one the planet. All that she had said was that it was time. Kemit wasn't sure as to time for what, but he was beginning to form an idea.

First he had that passenger, the four-armed, light-haired woman. Tohe had contacted him then. Then the blonde youth, on his way to his homeworld to visit his parents. Why that man's family lived on Tatooine was beyond Kemit's grasp. Tohe had contacted him then, as well.

Kemit had never seen the mysterious Tohe, only heard its synthesized voice over the secure comlink. The pilot didn't even know if his benefactor was male or female. But, he didn't care, as long as the credits kept appearing in his secret account.

But Tohe had contacted him while the Jedi pair that he had ferried were running around Tatooine, looking for their lost friend. Both had arrived safely on his ship. Even after the older one had left to get his precious samples analyzed. Wary, saying something about being able to sense the hunter, but safe.

He looked aside as the first of the suns emerged from over the horizon, an arc of brilliant light centered by a massive fireball. Soon, the other sun would rise, leaching what little life Tatooine had out of it.

"It is time," his comlink whispered, unbeckoned. Kemit jumped, startled. He hated when Tohe did that. Only this time, there were instructions, softly spoken in the expected asexual voice. "Stay where you are, do not move, do not do anything."

He swallowed, unsure of what to do. Why would his employed order him to stay still? What did it have in plan for him, for his ship?

The transport shuddered, a tractor beam locking onto its hull. R'utano burst onto the bridge, alarm on his face. "Kemit! What is going on?!"

Kemit froze, fear outlining every nerve. "My ship is small, if we resist the beam, it could tear us apart." Part lie, part truth. Kemit chewed on his lower lip, worry creasing his brow.

Silence.

Tari looked up from the datapad. "What is it, Master?" Karra asked, seated across from him on her bed. The quarters were small, the walls were lined with a bunk on either side, and a small window opposite the door.

"Something's happening," he whispered, all senses straining. The familiar tint of the hunter wafted to him. He stood, dropping the datapad on his bunk and holding his lightsaber in front of him. Karra stood, mirroring his actions.

Silence. The effects of the tractor beam dampened the engines' low growl. A soft green glow teased the edges of their window. Karra looked to her Master.

Fear was not an option. Tari tightened his fingers around the hilt of his lightsaber.

The ship shuddered as it was pulled into another ship's docking bay. The Jedi looked at each other. Karra nodded, her hematite dark lightsaber hilt cradled in her hand, ready to defend herself and her shipmates.

A door, somewhere far down the corridor, slammed open.

Tari nodded in reply to her, his stormy gray eyes serious. He clenched his jaw, readying himself for the combat that might be happening all too soon. The Jedi always disliked combat. A quick glance at Karra revealed grim determination.

There was a disturbance, a slight tinting of the Force. Tari narrowed his eyes at the familiar hunger of it. "The hunter is here," he whispered.

Karra activated the door controls and the door obediently slid open with a soft hiss. Lights flickered in the corridor. Voices, muffled and distant, echoed down the oddly empty ship. A bright blue glow sprang forth from Karra's lightsaber.

She eased into the corridor, lightsaber held out before her like a beacon. Tari followed suit, his brilliant white lightsaber casting its harsh light behind them. The voices drew closer, angry and urgent.

R'utano dashed from around the curve in the corridor, blaster in one hand. "Back inside!" he yelled, stopping short of pushing the two Jedi back into their quarters. He gasped, "They caught Kemit. I think they're after you two."

Tari stepped aside, motioning for R'utano to precede them into the room. Karra flashed in after him. The intruders turned the curve in the corridor, weapons blasting.

Blue circles of energy pulsed out, missing the Jedi and burning faint impressions into the wall. "Those weapons are set on stun." Tari swept into the room, locking the door behind him.

Karra and Tari stood at the ready, forming a veritable wall of lightsabers between the door and R'utano. Great booms sounded as the intruders blasted against the door. The Jedi took a step back, Karra raising her lightsaber a fraction of a centimeter, its blue light casting a cold glow over her face. R'utano gripped the handle of his blaster tighter.

The door bent under the pressure, groaning loudly. Tari could sense the weakening of the door's structure, and pushed Karra behind him. Stress marks, lighter streaks of metal, raced across the door.

He reached into the Force, strengthening the door. But there was too much pressure, the structure of the door much too weak to withstand any more abuse. At the last second, Tari redirected the force of the explosion, pushing the door to the side. Blue bolts of energy lanced into the room, deflected by swift strokes of Tari's weightless lightsaber.

Flashes of blue light, and Karra deflected the blasts that evaded her Master's blade. R'utano yelled in defiance, firing past the Jedi and into the fray.

The doorway framed three invaders, two identical in their black armor, one wrapped in layers of deep red cloth. With ease, the cloth-wrapped invader sidestepped R'utano's blast. One of its companions was not as lucky. He fell back into the corridor with a surprised yell.

The strange figure raised an odd, overly large, hand blaster. Tari could see the hand, clad in a dark glove, tighten on the grip. He raised his lightsaber.

Then the world went white.

Tari woke with a groan. The world spun around him. He could hear the muffled groans of another person waking up. "Karra?" he whispered hoarsely.

"No," R'utano grated back.

Tari sat up, rubbing the back of his neck, groggy. He looked around the room. An intruder still lay in a pile in a motionless pile in the corridor. What was left of the door lay over Tari's legs. It must have rested against the wall, then fallen on him after the bright flash of white light. R'utano sat against the far wall, his blaster lying on the floor next to him. Small bits of debris, mostly remains of the door, littered the small floor.

Karra was nowhere to be seen.

Tari stood shakily, and, ignoring R'utano's protests, dashed out of the room. In the corridor next to the airlock, lay Karra's disemboweled lightsaber.

"Oh no." R'utano caught up to him, placing a hand on Tari's shoulder.

"The hunter made a mistake," Tari said, his voice surprisingly calm.

Kemit staggered towards them, rubbing the side of his head. "What happened?"

"We were attacked," R'utano replied, watching Tari walk down the hallway, puzzled.

The Jedi stopped by the fallen intruder, searching his body. "Judging by how cold he is, we have been unconscious for quite some time," he said, detached. Tari sat back on his haunches. "Why take only Karra?"

R'utano placed a hand on his shoulder. "At least the hunter didn't take you both." He motioned to the body with his chin. "Find any clues?"

Tari held up a small pendant he had found. On it was a symbol, an odd swirl of lines behind a stylized triangle. "I have a feeling this will lead us to where we need to be."

The guard knelt next to the body, pulling aside a layer of armor. "He's not Human."

Sightless black irises set in emerald green eyes stared up at nothing. The being was bald, rows of ridges arching down behind his head. Large, round ears were set too far back on his head.

Tari pulled out his analyzer, taking a sample of the being's blood. Ithlorax. Male.

With a small flourish, he added a bit of the hunter's blood to the analyzer, hoping that the new information would make it possible for the sensitive device to discover the other species involved in the hunter's makeup. It was possible that the other intruders were mercenaries, that all of them were, and that the hunter was working from far away. That couldn't be right, Tari had felt the now all-too familiar taint of the hunter. The analyzer beeped its findings.

Ithlorax, Human. Trace Midi-Clorians. He mulled the new information over in his head. This was the first truly concrete clue he had to the whereabouts of the hunter.

"Where to now?" R'utano whispered.

"We go to Ithlor."

"No! I mean, that world is so far from here, perhaps the hunter is still on Tatooine?" Kemit stuttered.

Tari fixed him with a sharp glare. "I doubt it. Do you have something you want to tell us?"

Kemit shook his head. "I-I…no. I think I'll go check for battle damage." Kemit seemed to remember that there was no ship-to-ship battle and stammered belatedly, "Perhaps something was sabotaged."

"Good idea. R'utano, go with him." Anger flashed briefly in Kemit's eyes. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Kemit shook his head sharply, angered. "Do you think I am incapable of repairing my own ship?"

"This isn't your ship," Tari replied softly, standing up. Kemit backed up a step, drawing his blaster. "I see they stunned you too."

"Are you insinuating that I am a traitor?"

Kemit's fear twisted Tari's stomach in knots. The Jedi placed a hand over his belly, he looked down to the remains of Karra's lightsaber before fixing Kemit in place with a pointed glare. Something tickled the back of his mind. "I don't think I have to," the Jedi growled.

Something broke inside of Kemit. With a yell, he pulled out his blaster, aiming it at Tari and R'utano. "I had to! My employer pays me well!"

"But why, Kemit?" R'utano asked, hands outstretched, "I thought we were friends."

Kemit spat on the floor, his anger rising. "Friends?" He gave out a short, sharp bark of laughter. "You thought we were friends? You, who got to gallivant around the galaxy, think that I was ever your friend?"

"What happened?" R'utano took a small step forward.

"I grew up," Kemit growled deep in his throat. "I decided that it was time to amass my fortune, and this 'hunter' as you call it, pays well."

"I think you have some explaining to do." Tari stepped forward, placing a hand on Kemit's arm. Fear blossomed in the trapped man.

"No…oh no…" Terror filled his eyes. "I can't, I won't tell you! The hunter will kill me!"

Tari tightened his grip. A headache was forming in the back of his head, fueled by the man's irrational fear. "It is better you tell me than someone else."

Kemit shook violently, fear ruling his body. "No! The hunter will find out! NO!" With amazing speed, he pulled his arm out of Tari's grasp and ran down the hall. R'utano darted after him.

The Jedi ran after them. He had to rescue Karra, she was still alive, he could sense that. Bruises on his shins made his legs ache, and Tari had to slow down. He walked down the hall, realizing why Karra was taken instead of him. He had woke up to what was left of a heavy door across his legs, either the captors lacked the time to remove the door, or they didn't want to take the chance that he was badly injured.

If the second scenario was true, the hunter wanted only unhurt Jedi, and Tari shuddered at what they had planned to do to them. But Mak had been hurt, his blood was splattered in the alley.

Tari breathed a small sigh of relief, but hesitated in the sigh's completion. If they didn't care who was injured, but had truly been in a hurry, then why did they not just take the ship with them. He hadn't remembered seeing any part of the ship through the viewport in what was left of his quarters, so the ship lacked an internal docking bay. And if it was in a hurry, it couldn't free Tari and have time to flee as well.

Karra woke with a soft moan. She was in s small, dark room, her hands bound before her in stun cuffs. Struggle too much, and she would knock herself out again. The familiar weight of her lightsaber was absent. Stifling a small cry, she rolled to a sitting position.

It took a few seconds for her eyes to become accustomed to the dim light. The room was bare, just three walls and a door. Karra forced herself to relax, straining with her senses. She could barely sense two other bright lifeforms close to her, perhaps in similar rooms next to hers. A little more effort was rewarded with the flicker of two more beings, one agitated, one deadly calm.

The calm one came closer, stopping at what Karra guessed was the room next to hers. A few tense minutes later, the calm presence, oddly devoid of all emotion except for a cool professionalism, arrived at her door.

Karra struggled to her feet, standing ready to defend herself.

Bright light surged into the room, blinding her. The being waited until her eyes had focused.

"Welcome to my ship," she whispered.

The young Jedi looked up at the graceful, black wrapped being. Her hair was the deepest shade of purple, matched only by her depthless black eyes. Luminescent white skin glowed as she took one step into the small room. In her slim, six-fingered hands, she carried a tray of food. "Eat," she commanded softly. Karra could not argue with the authority in her voice.

"Who are you?" she asked.

"You should not wish to know who I am." Gracefully, the strange being placed the tray on the ground, turned and left. Karra stood in the back of the room, staring at the door. She should've done something, attempted to break out, anything. But no, she stood, still as a statue, mouth agape, staring at a closed door.

Karra couldn't identify the species. She chewed on her bottom lip as the sweet scents of the food wafted up to her. She ignored it, intent on being as stubborn as she possibly could. Just like Master Tari, she thought. How was her Master? Was he still alive?

She would never tell him this, but Karra worried for her Master. The thin man was prone to accidents. In all their time together, Karra had yet see him complete a mission without receiving some sort of injury. But he always pulled through.

The tray of food grated against the floor as Karra pushed it up against the door. She slid down the wall, bound hands rested in her knees.

Kemit was cornered. R'utano held a blaster on him, Tari standing just behind the Republic guard.

"Why?" he growled.

"Because," Kemit spat, "I do so much for you Jedi," he said the word like it was a curse, "that it is time you did something for me!" He charged R'utano with a yell, surprising him.

R'utano pulled back on the trigger, but missed in Kemit's charge. This was not the man he had known all these years.

Kemit's hate permeated the corridor. Tari reached out with the Force, trying to calm him, to disarm him. The pilot looked at the Jedi, his eyes filled with rage. Tari saw the bright flash of a knife drop from his sleeve. With a pull of the Force, he yanked it off course, but not out of the enraged man's grasp. R'utano gasped as the knife cut deeply into his right forearm, his hand falling open and dropping the blaster on the ground.

Kemit pushed him aside, his heart beating ferociously with the surge of adrenaline. Tari held him off easily with the heat of his lightsaber.

R'utano recovered his blaster, holding it in his left hand. Kemit never noticed as he slammed it down on the base of his skull. He motioned to Tari with the weapon. "We better be going to Ithlor."

Tari nodded. "After we get him secure and your arm patched up."

Kemit was heavier than he looked, but after a quick bandage to R'utano's arm, Tari was able to drag the unconscious man into the medical ward, strapping him firmly onto a table. The Jedi met up with R'utano again in the cockpit.

"Let me see your arm." R'utano did not argue as Tari undid the wrappings. The Jedi closed his eyes, breathing deeply. He reached out with the Force, deep into the wound, easing the pain, asking R'utano's body to heal. It was always harder to heal someone else, but Tari found the extra effort worth it. He could sense the guard's surprise.

Tari opened his eyes. R'utano was looking down at the wound. It was no longer bleeding, and the wound itself had closed considerably. Carefully, he flexed his right hand. "How is it?" Tari asked.

"A little stiff," R'utano examined his arm closely. "But better than it was. Ever think of becoming a healer?"

Tari shook his head sadly. "I'm too sensitive to emotions. I can stand quite a few hours in a hospital, and I have, but if I did it all the time," he held his hands out, "I fear I would go insane all too quickly."

R'utano grunted agreement.

"How long until we arrive at Ithlor?" Tari leaned back into the co-pilot's seat. R'utano assumed control of the ship after Kemit's betrayal.

"Six more hours. Nap if you want to, but I need to interrogate someone."

"Let me," Tari looked over at him, gray eyes determined. "He knows where the missing Jedi are."

R'utano glared grimly out of the viewscreen. "I've learned never to argue with a Jedi, when they've made up their mind, there isn't anything anyone can do to change it."

Tari had to smile at the remark. "Alert me when we are within two hours to Ithlor." He stood, easing between the two seats in the cockpit.

Kemit had been a good friend to R'utano, many years ago. When he was offered the chance, R'utano left to join the Republic, left to help his people. Kemit had never agreed with his decision, fighting it whenever he had the chance. Even when his father handed over the company to run, Kemit had sold it in order to dissuade R'utano from his chosen path.

But R'utano was happy. He enjoyed what he did, and he told his old friend that whenever he had the chance. They even flew ships together, when R'utano's superiors weren't looking.

He hadn't seen Kemit for many years until this voyage. His old friend had changed, and R'utano doubted it was for the better. How unlike Kemit it was just to do something solely for the money. Or to get revenge on the Jedi that Kemit always swore the Republic served. Never mind how many times R'utano had told him it was the other way around.

But Kemit never listened. He had grown bitter.

Kemit paced in his room like a caged animal. Tari could sense his anger, his resentment. With a few deft strokes to the door's keypad, he entered the room, the door hissing shut behind him. Kemit stopped his pacing to glare at the Jedi.

"You ruined my life," he growled. "You ruined my life and run his!"

"How did I ruin your life?" Tari now sensed deep, bitter anger, a need to return to the way things were. Apparently, Kemit refused change whenever he could.

"You order people like R'utano and myself around the galaxy, do this, do that," he flung his hands around in the air, his anger overcoming his ability to speak for an instant.

"I-we need the help of--"

Kemit cut him off sharply. "Damn you, Jedi. You can't even see past your own superiority! 'The Force'," he spat. "You think you are all so damn good because you can use the Force!"

He charged Tari, who simply sidestepped Kemit's rage. He let him vent his pent-up emotions.

"You ruined my family's business! My life!" Tari sensed a doubt, deep within Kemit.

"But, did you do anything to stop it?" he asked softly.

Enraged eyes focused on Tari, "Of course I did!" Kemit pointed at him, his finger a sword of accusation. "I did all I could to stop you!"

"To stop me, or to stop R'utano from joining the Republic guards."

Kemit stopped suddenly in mid-yell. "What?"

"I have as much choice as R'utano when it come to 'gallivanting about the galaxy'. You wanted him with you." It was a simple statement, but it drove home deeply.

"You rule the Republic," venom dripped from the accusation.

Tari shook his head sadly. "I am more of a servant than most care to think of. I go where the Senate says I should go. I have to answer to them, to the Jedi Council, to you," he leaned closer to Kemit, whispered, "and to myself."

"I don't believe you," he growled.

"Believe what you will," Tari straightened, arranging his robes. "But we are en route to Ithlor. If there is anything you want to tell us about it, the comm system is open." He turned to leave.

"Why don't you just pull it out of my mind," Kemit growled.

Tari looked at him coolly, "Jedi do not work that way." The door hissed open and locked shut before Kemit could reply.

Karra had no way to tell exactly how long she was in the cramped room. Little droids came in through a small door set into the bottom of the door to her room, removing the dishes, uneaten food, and leaving more food in their wake. Occasionally, they would leave spare clothes, bedding, and even a toy lightsaber, something that Karra found insulting at best.

Her accommodations were cramped, dim, but not uncomfortable. When her stomach refused to be ignored and she had eaten the food, there was no taint of poison. The bedding and clothes were clean. There was even a discrete alcove just large enough to relieve herself in.

But she hated being a captive, no matter how humane her cage. She spent her time pacing, reaching out with the Force, and testing its currents for her fellow captives. And her Master.

The door slid open suddenly, the guard framed in its blinding light. He waited for Karra to blink the stars out of her eyes. "If you would come with me," he invited, all with a dangerous undertone in his voice. This was a man who expected his orders, no matter how gently phrased, to be followed.

Karra would have none of it. "What do you want with me?"

"I want nothing to do with you." Impatience tempered by experience flared briefly. "Your presence is required."

"Where are you taking me?" Still she held her ground.

The guard clenched his jaw, his anger held in check. "If you come with me, you will find out."

"I want to know now." Tari always said she had a stubborn streak in her, and now Karra tapped into it as best as she could.

She backed further into the room until she was pressed against a wall. "I think I will stay here."

"Not when the door shuts and the air is pumped out," he retorted coolly. "Unconscious, or awake, the choice is yours." He turned to leave.

If she was asleep, Karra wouldn't be able to take advantage of any openings that allowed her to escape. Awake, she would have half a chance. "Wait."

The guard looked back at her, "You are smarter than you first led me to believe."

She scowled at the remark, following him into the corridor. It was long, lined with narrow doors, occasionally intersected by other, door-lined corridors. The guard took her around the complex, turning down several different corridors until she was almost sure she was lost. But a quick reach with the Force, and Karra knew where she was relative to the room she had spent so much time in. The guard was trying to confuse her, but he had failed. They were really only a few corridors over from her cell.

He stopped in front of a door that was different. Different writing, different size. It was larger, and Karra gulped at the ominous sensation that wafted from inside. She balked.

The guard chuckled, keying the door open and pushing her inside.

Damn them, damn them all, Kemit cursed to himself. That Jedi had locked him up in his own room in this ship, a ship that wasn't even his! If it was his ship, he would have altered it to allow him to escape from any one of the rooms.

But not this ship, this ship with that damn Jedi and his traitorous friend.

Kemit couldn't help but feel the nagging doubt in the back of his mind. R'utano had told him, time and time again, that he was happy.

The Jedi had told him that he was at the beck and call of the Senate and his own Council.

The angry man paced in his room, arms crossed tightly over his chest. No! He would not believe it! R'utano had betrayed him by joining the Republic. The Jedi lorded over his people like kings over their servants. But Kemit had never met a Jedi before.

Tari, and his Padawan learner Karra, had treated him with respect, regardless of how he treated them. They never ordered him or R'utano unless it was necessary, when lives stood in the balance. Even of they were Jedi lives.

His new employer paid well, but Tohe was bossy, ordering him to do things he had done all of his life. The Jedi watched him first, discovered what he knew, and asked him, not ordered, him to do it.

Kemit couldn't shake the feeling that he had betrayed R'utano and his people, rather than the other way around.

The room was large, lit painfully bright. Glowpanels lined every square centimeter of the ceiling and walls. Even the sides of the shelves pressed against the walls were imbedded with the panels. In the center of the room, stood a large chair, draped in white and reclined. If it wasn't for the wires and bright metal implements that snaked out of the arms, the chair looked invitingly comfortable.

"Come and sit," a soft feminine voice said. "I wish you no harm, but I must take a blood sample." The strange being that had given her the food the first time glided into the room. But now she was dressed in flowing layers of diaphanous white. Hanging around her neck were three large crystals.

Karra scowled as she recognized the crystal from her own laboriously constructed lightsaber hanging around her neck. It glinted softly blue in the bright lights. "Who are you," she growled.

"Tohe," she breathed, standing next to the chair. "I can take the blood sample with you standing, if you like."

"You will take nothing."

"As you wish." Tohe's voice took on a dangerous edge.

Tohe walked around the chair, advancing on Karra. "If you do not let me take the sample, I will force it from you. I assure you, your cooperation is in your best interest."

Karra took a step back. "I will not let you."

"Very well then," Tohe growled softly.

With a subtle warning from the Force, Karra darted to her left, a blaster firing behind her. It was set on stun, leaving no mark in the glowing wall. But Tohe was a capable marksman.

She fired three times before the Padawan hit the ground.

Tari woke with a start from his mediations. It was only two hours before their landing on Ithlor. Karra was near.

He stood, pulling his robe on over his thin shoulders.

It was a short walk to the cockpit, but an even shorter stroll to Kemit's quarters. Tari decided to pay him a visit.

"How much longer," Kemit said when the door hissed open. He sat in the room's one chair, his back bent, his hands clasped between his knees. "I have much anger in me, Jedi. But I think you're right. I think something needs to change."

"Two hours," Tari stepped into the room, letting the door hiss shut behind him.

Kemit nodded. "Making good time, but we are going in the wrong direction."

"What do you mean?"

He looked up at the taller Jedi, only to be pinned down by his fierce gray eyes. "Ithlor is were the mercenaries where hired, yes. But not where we want to go."

"Do you know where we want to go?" Tari stepped up to him, eyes still locked.

"No, but I know of a supply depot. You're not going to like this," Tari could sense that Kemit had been doing nothing but thinking of what he was about to say, "but if we use you, and my known hatred for you, as bait…"

"We might be able to find Karra and the others." Tari broke his gaze away from Kemit. "It's a good plan, risky, but viable. What do you suggest we do?"

Kemit looked up at him, shocked. The Jedi was letting him call the shots! "In the past, when I have made deliveries for my employer, I landed on a small moon, sent my signal, and dropped my load. If my load held you, R'utano, and a load of weapons, we might be able to free the others."

Tari nodded, satisfied. He sensed that Kemit had come to terms with his anger, if only for the moment. The Jedi was going to take advantage of that while he could. "Might want to throw in a homing device as well."

Kemit nodded, handing over a datapad he had been working on. "Here is a list of everything I think you two may need, plus the homing device, and where to find it on the ship." It may not be his ship, but Kemit still knew every angle of it. He reached down and picked another datapad from the floor. "This 'pad has all the information that I know of on my employer."

Tari bowed after taking the pads. "Thank you Kemit, you may have save many lives today."

Her head pounded. Karra shook off the rest of the stunning effects of the blaster. She sat up, rubbing the back of her neck. The walls of the small room greeted her, as did a tray of food sitting calmly on a warmer.

Karra sighed, reaching for Force, easing it around her own body. There was a small hole on the inside of her elbow, but nothing else. No subtle disturbance to show that anything had been done to her other than what Tohe said was done. As much as she hated to admit it, Tohe was a fair captor, keeping to her word and not abusing her prisoners.

A slight nudge from the Force came from a fellow prisoner, it felt familiar, warm. She sent back a greeting. Karra was not near as strong as Tari in matters of the Living Force, but she knew and old friend when she touched minds with one. Mak was alive and well, and similarly treated, in the cell next to hers. Another small nudge alluded to another Jedi in the cell beyond his.

He was worried. He had bad dreams, haunting images of warning. Karra placed her hands on the wall separating them, attempting to get closer. She eased deeper into the Force, reaching out to him.

The future, hunger, death. We are bait as well as the caught. Something bad is going to happen, something that will kill us.

Karra bit onto her lower lip, worried. If Master Tari didn't hurry up, he might not have a Padawan left to rescue.

A feeble wave of hope from Mak. He was trying to stay optimistic, trying to stay hopeful that his dreams were just manifestations of a frightened subconscious, not dire warnings from the Force.

She hoped he was right.

Tari stood behind Kemit as he contacted the small, nearly deserted moon base. "I have a delivery."

"What is it? Nothing is scheduled for another month," grated a voice on the other end.

Kemit leaned in close to the speaker, whispering even over the secure link, a habit he had formed years ago, "I know my employer's preference for certain cargo." He paused, sucking in a deep breath.

"We have all the 'certain cargo' we need," the voice cut in.

"Not this cargo."

Tari could almost hear the being on the other end thinking. "Drop it where you usually do, if we don't want it, you will be the first to know."

Kemit cut the link with a deft swipe. "He'll destroy my ship if this doesn't work."

Tari nodded grimly, "I know."

"I'm ready," R'utano held out a pair of cuffs. "You know I'll have to lock these, to make it look real."

"I know, just don't make them too tight." Tari held his lightsaber over to the guard. "Make sure this is where I need to get at it."

R'utano pulled Tari's arms behind his back. "I hate doing this."

"I can sense that," the Jedi replied with a grin. He could sense the man's displeasure, and the looseness of the cuffs. Tari thanked him with a small nod. Kemit was nervous, his palms sweating from where he grasped the power controls all too tightly.

Tari stood next to him, looking down. "I don't have any reason to trust you, Kemit. But I will."

Kemit looked up at him, eyes wide with shock. "Why?"

"Because, right now, I have no other option. We have to get the captive Jedi back."

The pilot swallowed at the slight emphasis on the word we. "I will do what I can," he said softly.

"I know." Tari turned to face the guard, "Is it ready?"

R'utano clenched his jaw. "I still don't like it, but it's ready. With survival gear."

"Good." Tari motioned down the corridor with his jaw. "Then I guess it's time to go."

"May the Force be with you," Kemit whispered.

Sometime over the night, Karra and her fellow captives had been transferred to a facility. She suspected it was some kind of moon base or hollowed asteroid.

This facility was different from the ship. On the ship, accommodations were sparse, but comfortable. Here, with one wall of clear transparasteel, and a large light glaring from overhead, Karra felt like a lab animal. She was forced to wear simple, drab gray garb. The same as the other Jedi.

On their arrival, they were ushered into a large, empty room. Mak, with his shock of yellow hair, crowded close to her, sensing the possible future. He was fearful of it, and it tainted the Force around him.

Infinnnitara was calmer, one pair of her arms wrapped around Mak's shoulders, the other hanging loosely at her sides. Besides a bandage on Mak's arm, both appeared unharmed.

Large, pale hulking brutes of humanoids herded them into showers, stripping and cleaning each. Then they handed the captives the identical gray outfits, each tailored to the specifics of the wearer.

Karra paced in her small, exposed room. A small ledge, just large enough for her to stretch out on, lined one wall. She could just sense her fellow captives, Mak, a few cells over, and Infi, too far away for her to pinpoint. Right now, Karra was grateful for Tari's teachings in the Living Force. She doubted she would have been able to sense as much as she did with a more conventional Master.

The cell itself was far too cold, and Karra wrapped her arms around her shoulders for warmth. She reached into herself, imagining the Force as heat. The shivering abated somewhat.

A slim, almost skeletal, being stepped up to the door, taping on the wall beyond her field of vision. "How old are you?" he asked.

"Who are you?" Karra did not trust this man. There was something not quite right, a sense of imbalance within him. She narrowed her eyes, probing deeper. He wasn't dying. Wasn't sick. But Karra had the feeling that there was something wrong with his mind. Her eyes narrowed further when she encountered a deep, driving hunger, more sinister than anything the hunter had.

He laughed, a rough, grating wispy sound. "Questions, questions. I ask, you will answer. Not the other way around." His voice took on a deep note of warning.

Karra steeled her jaw. "Who are you?" she repeated deliberately.

All humor left the skeletal man. "How old are you?" he growled.

She couldn't tell who was winning the battle of the wills, but Karra guessed she was getting to him, irritating him. Soon, he would break. She knew she should have been afraid of what would happen if he broke, but she was not. She wanted to drive him to distraction, to keep him away from whatever reason it was that had led her here.

"How old are you?" he repeated.

Karra simply stared at him. Not just any stare, but the classic Jedi gaze, the deep penetrating look mastered by her people.

He turned his eyes, cursing. "You will answer my question."

She did not dignify him with a response, simply following his eyes with hers.

With a muffled curse, he stomped down the hall.

Karra smiled, it was a victory, but a small one.

The crate was easy to maneuver in the light gravity of the moon. Tari grunted as he shifted against R'utano, unable to stop his movement with his lightly bound hands.

"Normally, I would enjoy this."

Tari shot R'utano a sharp glance, he couldn't stop the blush that tinted his ears. Fortunately, it was far too dim in the crate for R'utano to see it.

The ground rumbled as Kemit's borrowed ship lifted off. If he strained his ears, Tari could hear grains of sand kicked up by the ship's repulserjets hit the outside of the crate. R'utano reached up and easily touched the top of the crate from where he sat. "Not long now, the beacon is transmitting."

Tari reached out with the Force, gently probing. Small, distant lives flickered deep within the moon. Many years ago, he had trouble on a moon not too dissimilar from this one. But the bright light that was his Master, Mar-Dhn, had reached from the Force and freed his mind and body from the ravages of Sarcx's Force-altering poison.

Three bright Jedi lives glowed on the waves of the Force. Tari eased deeper, reaching with his senses.

He sensed Karra first, her spirit as defiant as ever. Mak was harder, but his connection to Karra made sensing him easier. Both were healthy, alive. Mak was much more fearful than Karra, his training less complete. He furrowed his eyebrows, trying to sense the third Jedi.

Infinnitara, his mind whispered. But their connection was too weak, too thin. He couldn't sense anything about her, only that she was there.

He opened his eyes.

"Learned anything?" R'utano's voice echoed softly.

"Karra and Mak are fine, but I can't tell enough about Infi." He sighed, adjusting his bound arms.

R'utano checked for the hundredth time that his blaster was set on stun. "I really hate this, you know."

Tari smiled wanly. "More than you know, trust me, I can sense it. Try to think about rescuing the others."

The ground rumbled softly as a vehicle approached. Tari could sense one lifeform, and its surprise at so large a "gift".

R'utano braced himself and Tari when the crate shifted and fell into the vehicle. It landed on its side, Tari on top of R'utano. He grunted, attempting to cushion the roll with the Force. They shook about as the lifeform shifted the box.

Soon, they were off, Tari untangling himself from R'utano.

"I hope we know what we are getting into," the guard muttered under his breath.

Infinnnitara screamed.

"What was that all about?" The skeletal man walked up to her, prodding where one of her arms used to be. "I need tissue samples, and you are the only one with extra limbs."

Infi shuddered, her remaining two arms strapped to the table, reaching out above her head. She could feel a tear making its way slowly down her cheek.

"You know," the man continued, "this would be made much more pleasant if you would just answer my questions."

She gave him a defiant stare, resolved to not even talk to the gaunt man.

"Very well, then." He sighed, turning to his worktable.

"Doctor Sarcx, a package has arrived for you," the comm crackled.

"Not now!" he snapped. "I am busy!"

"You want to see this package, soon. Kemit had a very special delivery for you."

The doctor paused, mulling the information over in his head. "Kemit," he muttered, "where have I heard that name before."

"The freighter captain," the comm replied smoothly, "the one that Tohe prefers to hire."

"Ah yes." He turned to Infi, motioning idly with a hand to one of his silent, hulking aides. "Take her back to her quarters. Make sure she is comfortable." The last sounded like an afterthought, a mere courtesy provided to Infi by rote.

With surprising gentleness, the hulking aide freed Infi from the table and cradled her in his arms. She could feel the fierce beating of his heart, the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. But there was no life under the pale skin. He was not alive in the thinking sense of the word. A walking, breathing set of body parts.

Infi shuddered, sobbing quietly into the silent man's chest.

Carefully, he carried her to the cell, an undecorated room with one clear wall that overlooked a wide corridor. Someone had been in her cell, adding extra pads to her ledge. Slowly, the unfeeling creature placed her on the pads, and left the cell.

Infi curled up as much as her pained body would allow, the loss of her arms lancing deep into her soul. She was born with them, grew with them, trained to use the Force with them. They were not the extra limbs the doctor so quickly labeled them as. They were a part of her. When would the doctor decree that two arms was one arm too many?

Mak huddled in his cell, terrified. Never before had he felt such fear, such horror. And all because he was a Jedi. His Master, Mar-Aroon had always told him that fear was the path to the Dark Side. Fear of the unknown, fear of what was to come and what was to happen. But this was an entirely different form of fear.

The skeletal doctor had experimented on him. Mak shuddered at the memory of the doctor, the pain of the draining of his blood. Just a small amount, enough for a definitive reading of his midi-clorians. And enough for Mak to witness the true horror of the doctor.

"I want to know more about you," he had said. "I want to know everything there is to know about a Jedi." The man had discovered a way to separate the symbiotic midi-clorians from Jedi blood.

Hot tears ran down Mak's face, his knees tight into his chest. He still saw that vial, clear, perfect glass. Empty save for a drop of dark, thick liquid that shuddered with a life all its own before surrendering its battle and turning hard and black.

"This always happens," the doctor had complained like it was some inconvenience. Mak was no more than a lab animal to him. Mak was nothing.

And Karra was here with him. Another fear came to him, a deep burning want for Karra to go free. But her Master was not captured. Tari would do anything in his power to save her.

Master Mar-Aroon was free as well, but on his mission rested the lives of millions. He could not leave to save Mak, no matter how much he wanted to. Mak had meditated on this, accepted the need of one life over so many. He had accepted it, but he could not bring himself to like it.

His stomach knotted, fear scorching away what was left of his self-control. Mak was still young, barely into his apprenticeship, just starting to learn the ways of the Force. To loose it all now, to sacrifice all that he had learned to the overriding fear would be worse than falling to the Dark Side. He would loose himself.

The doctor had placed him back in this cell, laughing. The young Jedi curled tighter on the bench, pulling into himself, away from the fear.

The doctor paced around his new charges. One Republic soldier holding the Master of one of his captives at the point of his blaster. A blaster set on stun, he noticed.

The Jedi watched him with the cool, quiet way of his people.

"And who brings me such an…expensive gift?" The doctor turned to face the man, trying to ignore the unnerving gaze of the Jedi.

"Kemit." was the terse reply.

"Kemit…isn't he the one that Tohe hires?" It was a statement, and Sarcx paid close attention to the man's reaction.

To his credit, there was none. "I believe so."

Sarcx turned his attention fully to the Jedi, who easily towered over him by a head and a half. "Which one is yours, Jedi? I have two Padawans with me now."

The Jedi bored into him with his strange stormy gray eyes.

"So, you are as mute as the others," he sighed. "Very well. I'll transfer the allotted amount of credits to your account, and Kemit's," Sarcx looked over to the Republic guard, who nodded. "Tell me, you wouldn't happen to have his lightsaber? It could be worth much money to you."

R'utano held out the brushed silver tube.

Sarcx regarded the weapon. "As drab as you are, Jedi, I will enjoy taking it apart to see how it works." He turned back to R'utano, "Good, now, escort him out, will you?"

A tall, pale mass of humanoid nodded, and led the guard out of the room. The man started to protest, but the creature's tightening grasp on his arm seemed to change his mind.

Sarcx once again turned to the silent, thin Jedi. He looked the man over, noting his dark, disheveled hair, the typically intense gray eyes. The unnaturally thin frame draped in the usually drab Jedi robes. A quick hand signal, and one of the lifeless aides grasped both of the Jedi's wrists in one massive hand. The Jedi gasped in surprise.

"Can't sense him? Too bad," Sarcx taunted. "I have them genetically engineered and cloned to just live. No thinking, no mind of their own. Just bodies that do as I will them to."

The Jedi stared down at him.

"I know what you must be thinking of me," Sarcx continued. "How could I do such a thing?" He laughed up at the Jedi, "How could I not!"

He struggled against his bonds. The being grunted, yanking down on his wrists.

"Tried to use the Force? Won't work too well, I'm afraid." Sarcx circled the pair, wringing his hands together, delighted. "It'll just make him mad before you accomplish anything."

Sarcx laughed, watching the Jedi struggle. The being behind him simply tightening his grasp farther, and the Jedi wisely stopped struggling. Nodding, Sarcx continued to taunt the lanky Jedi, waving the being after him as he walked away. "Maybe I should just show you all my guests and see if you happen to know any of them."

Tari gritted his teeth. He reached into the mind of the being holding his arms to no avail. The more he struggled, the tighter the hands around his wrists, it didn't matter if he was loosely bound anymore, Tari doubted he would have been able to free even unbound hands from the iron grip.

The Force avoided the creature, slinking around it like it was afraid to touch the abomination. An unnatural creation that had no right to even breathe. It tainted the Force, twisted it, making it hard for Tari to reach into.

Loosen your grip, I can't feel my hands. Tari thought at the hulking brute as hard as he could.

The grip stayed the same.

Corridor after corridor, some finished with proper walls and floors, others dimly lit tubes roughly hewn into the stone, passed around them. Tari relaxed his mind, remembering the trip, every turn, every nuance of the corridors.

Great suffering suddenly assaulted his senses. Tari gasped, and the doctor turned to look at him. "So, sensed something interesting, have we?"

He paused in front of a large transparasteel window, a small, pale form curled tightly on a padded ledge inside.

Infinnnitara's pale golden hair spilled down from the platform. Two arms wrapped around her shoulders, her back to the window. Her shoulders shuddered.

Infinnnitara, Tari sent a wave of warmth to her.

She shuddered again, a sense of dread, of fear not for herself but for the others. A plea not to let the doctor continue his experiments. A need to be free and whole once again.

Tari reached out to her, soothing her, comforting her. I will do what I can. I have an…asset outside.

A small wave of thanks and carefully guarded optimism wafted to him. Tari held onto it, strengthening it.

He could feel her gratitude, however carefully guarded.

The doctor waved the hulking brute of a humanoid on. Tari hesitated, but the grip tightened painfully. With a slight gasp, Tari followed him down the corridor.

In the next cell, connected to Infi's, was a huddled bundle of what could only be Mak. He sat, curled up in the corner of the cell, arms wrapped around his knees. A brief flash of his blue eyes, and his head was again buried in his arms.

"Quiet bunch, you Jedi," the doctor quipped, walking farther down the corridor.

Karra was nearby, he could sense her. Frustration, carefully controlled anger, and a need to run and be free, greeted him. She immediately brightened when Tari came around the corner to her cell, but her expression darkened when she saw he was captive as well.

"So, this one is yours," the doctor stated with glee.

Tari paid him no heed, holding his head low in a carefully submissive gesture. Karra, someone is helping us. Be ready.

A faint feeling of affirmation. She stopped pacing, glaring at the doctor with her vivid green eyes.

Tari reached deep into the Force, seeking with it, searching for the one weakness in his captor's guard. Karra nodded, sensing what he was doing.

The doctor looked from one Jedi to the next, suddenly nervous. Tari shifted his probe, sensing instead the mechanism that held the door shut. It was a foolish chance, but if he captured the doctor and his engineered guards, he could free Mak and Infi. And Kemit and R'utano from their obligations.

He squeezed with the Force, picking and pulling with the unusual amount of fine control he possessed. The doctor started when the control panel sparked and sizzled. "Stop him!"

As fast as the command was given, the brute slammed Tari against a wall, breaking his concentration. "Put her in a different cell, put him in the lab," he barked.

The brute nodded once, then drug Tari, still awake and blinking the stars from his eyes, down the corridor.

Perhaps it wasn't such a good idea to attempt to free Karra so soon. He knew so little about the doctor and his plans. Tari shook the fuzziness out of his mind, trying to clear his thoughts. The brute continued to drag him along, and he had trouble getting his feet back under him.

Tari succeeded after a few stumbling steps.

"What do you want with us?" he demanded.

The doctor laughed, careful no to slow down or look at the Jedi. "Everything."

The large, massive pale being stopped just short of the airlock door. He waved one meaty hand at the controls, grating, "Master Sarcx is pleased that you have helped us. Leave before you become a test subject."

"Right…" R'utano paused, setting the blaster on a different setting of stun, a setting that would kill most Humans. He planted the muzzle of the weapon in the brute's midsection, pulling back on the trigger. "Thanks for showing me the way out."

R'utano trotted down the short corridor to where it intersected with the main corridor, marking his way out with a scratch on the wall and darting deep into the moon tunnel complex.

Her new cell was no better than the last. The view outside of the one clear wall the same featureless stretch of corridor. But there was one significant difference.

Karra reached with her senses, Infinnnitara and Mak were nearby, much closer than they were previously. She chewed on her bottom lip, pensive. Tari had once again risked life and limb for someone else, managing to get himself captured in the process. It was a wonder he had lived as long as he had. A small, well-hidden fear of hers was that Tari would not live to see the end of her training.

She had passed Mak and Infi in the corridor. Infi still held her head up, proud. But her torso was far too long, her sides wrapped. Mak was a shell of his former self, his hair hanging limp and dark circles under his eyes from too much crying and not enough sleep.

But he had not turned his head when he saw Karra. A small spark, a slight glimmer of hope that she was still alive and well shone in his vibrant eyes. The essence of Mak was still in that hunched, pained body. Karra extended to them both a hopeful wave of the Force. Infi's response was fast and pure, a furtive darting, aware that the skeletal doctor might be able to sense their use of the energy. Mak's return was shaky, uncontrolled.

And afraid.

Karra stared after them as they were escorted around the curve in the corridor. They had both changed, but Mak had not learned enough about the Force to draw upon its strength. His soul was fading away. And he knew it.

Karra paced in her cell, arms wrapped around her shoulders in the suddenly cold room.

R'utano darted around a turn in the corridor, just missing being seen by a pair of massive guards. He held his borrowed weapon close to him, muzzle aimed at the ceiling.

The Republic guard waited, listening intently to the sounds of pursuit. He couldn't shake them, somehow they always knew where he was, which corridors he was about to turn down. Even the little scratches he had made on the walls to find his way back to the airlock were useless as he doubled back on his own tracks for the fifth time.

He took a deep breath, the thundering of massive footsteps echoing down the corridor. Well-trained reflexes slowly tightened their grip on the handle of the blaster. If they failed to find him, they might not trigger the alarm. R'utano hated to think of what would happen if they did find him.

The pounding of the feet came closer, and the guard eased farther down the corridor, keeping the slight curve in it between himself and the footsteps. So intent he was on evading his pursuers, that he neglected to watch the wall that he rested against.

"R'utano!" a muffled voice yelled.

He turned his head. A shimmering wall of transparasteel was directly behind him, the Padawan of the Jedi he was with trapped behind it. With a muffled curse and a worried glance down the corridor, he stood back and took aim at the lock.

With a quick nod, Karra backed deeper into her cell, away from the transparent wall.

The beings rounded the corner just as R'utano fired.

Karra ducked her head at the pyrotechnics display that was the lock to her cell. As soon as the tortured door cycled open, she hoped in response to the smoke that left her coughing, she darted out. R'utano grabbed her arm, steering her down the corridor, running.

"The others," she gasped, pulling ahead of him and darting farther down the corridor. Alarms rang out, their noise deafening.

Mak sat curled up in his cell, knees pulled tightly into his chest. There wasn't much left of his hair, and what there was ragged and patched. Not even his Padawan braid remained. "Mak!" Karra called, "Mak, can you hear me?"

He looked up at her, eyes dull and bleary.

"Mak! Get up!"

She stood aside as R'utano dispensed his lock with a quick discharge of energy from the borrowed blaster.

Voices called down the corridor. Smoke filled the cell, then the door cycled open, but Mak stayed where he was, shivering slightly. Karra ran up to him, placing her hand on his shoulder. "What did they do to you?" she whispered.

"Hurry! They're coming!" R'utano fired a couple of random shots down the hall.

Mak looked up at her, the small spark of life glittering weakly. "Karra?" he whispered.

She coughed, nodding and holding her hand over her mouth. "We need to get out of here and free Infi."

"Infi…" Mak muttered. He seemed to gather what resources he had left, pulling himself to his feet.

Karra helped him up, and he leaned heavily into her, shivering slightly. "Shh.." she whispered to him. "Let your fear go, we are going to be free soon."

Mak nodded, inhaling one deep, shuddering breath.

"Hurry up," R'utano growled.

Thundering footsteps echoed down the hall. "Do you know where Infi is?" Karra looked worriedly at her friend.

He wrung his hands, composing himself as best as he could. Karra winced at the vicious bruises lacing his arms. "She's close." He paused, reaching into the Force. With his eyes closed, he started down the hall, trotting.

The skeletal doctor paused at an intersection. "I have other matters to attend to at the moment, Jedi." He handed Tari's lightsaber over to the guard. "If he resists, kill him." The doctor walked down the hall, his gleeful thoughts of a new Jedi sickening Tari.

They had walked two more corridors when the alarms sounded.

Tari's guard stopped, listening to the pattern of the blaring alarm. Using his captor's distraction, Tari heaved with the Force, pushing the hulking man into the wall. As fast as thought, he dropped the loose bindings around his long-numb hands.

The guard recovered quickly, lunging clumsily towards the Jedi. Tari feinted to the left, bringing his right knee into the brute's midsection. The creature bent over, wheezing. Tari tried to hold onto his lightsaber, secured to the brute's belt, but his numb fingers could not curl around the brushed silver tube.

One meaty hand reached out and grabbed Tari's robe, lifting the Jedi off of his feet. With a shaky wave of his hand, and a not so shaky command of the Force, Tari reached for the small mind of the guard. "You will let me go."

The guard stood still, stupidly gazing at the wall. "Let what go?"

Minds were not the easiest to control, the weaker the mind, the less effort needed. But when a mind is simply too weak or merely a shell of a living being, the level of control needed shifted.

"Open your hand." Tari's fingers were tingling.

The brute obeyed, opening his hand and dropping Tari on the floor, seconds before he remembered that he was supposed to capture the Jedi and not free him.

Tari rushed the guard, knocking the lightsaber from his belt with his shoulder. It clattered to the floor, a new obstacle to avoid being stepped on.

With a roar, the guard wrapped one arm around Tari's leg, pulling the Jedi off of his feet. Tari felt like he was a small animal being toyed with by an overly large, clumsy child. One tingling hand reached out for his lightsaber, but the brute pulled him out of reach with a grunt.

Tari called it to his hand with a pull of the Force. The guard swung him around, flipping the Jedi in front of him. He lay sprawled on his stomach, lightsaber pinned under his belly.

He used the creature's grip on his leg as leverage, flipping over and activating the brilliant white blade, slashing across the brute's shoulder. With a howl, the creature dropped him, unsure whether to recapture a suddenly armed captive.

"I don't want to harm you," Tari gasped, both sore hands wrapped around the hilt of his weapon.

The guard stepped back, considering the Jedi's words. "Not hurt for losing captive?"

Tari shook his head. "I don't want to hurt anyone. I just want to free the others and go home."

"Home!" the guard pointed to the floor. "Here is Home." He ran at the Jedi, but Tari nimbly sidestepped him. The brute paused, turning to regard the Jedi. "This Home now."

"No, this can never be my home."

"You can't reason with them," a soft, melodious voice said.

Both Tari and the guard turned to look at her. A slim, delicate being stepped from a shallow doorway, a large blaster pointed at them both. She nodded to the Jedi. "I thought you were dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you." Tari glanced over to the hulking being. He stood stoically, gazing at the newcomer with confusion.

"You have payment, Tohe." The guard motioned to her with one meaty paw.

Tohe inclined her head a fraction of a centimeter at the being. "True." She walked up to Tari, her eyes running over the length of the lightsaber. The crystals hanging from her neck chimed softly.

"Lightsaber crystals," Tari growled. "You wish to add mine."

Tohe sauntered past the pair, the hulking guard looked at her, perplexed.

The alarms powered down, but their ringing still echoed in his ears. Tari watched the hunter glide past him, her fingers trailing along the wall. "I like the crystals. Each one is unique, special."

"They belong in the lightsabers of the Jedi you captured."

"True enough." She turned to face him, "and I will have yours next."

The guard nodded, the conflict Tari planted in his mind fully resolved. He charged at the Jedi.

Tari dove out of the way, careful to hold his lightsaber away from his body. The brilliant white blade was warm against his face. He felt the shuddering deck plates as the guard overbalanced and stomped down hard.

Tohe laughed, a light, shrill chitter. Tari rolled to his feet, his weapon between himself and Tohe. The guard snarled, clenching and unclenching his fists.

"Why do you do it?" Tari stepped back, his hands sore, but functional.

"Because I can," Tohe walked up to the guard, standing behind him. "I get paid well for you."

R'utano rounded the corner, his blaster pointed ahead. Karra and Mak two steps behind.

"Master Tari!" Karra exclaimed, she stopped short when she saw Tohe. "You," she hissed. "I know you."

Tohe bowed deeply. "I am grateful that I am remembered."

Mak stayed behind the safety that R'utano presented. "We have to get Infi back," the boy whispered.

Tari nodded to him, then glared at the guard. With a nudge of the Force, he spoke. "You are quite outnumbered, you will not win this battle. Leave now and survive."

The guard faltered, stepping back slightly to bump into Tohe. She pushed against him, commanding, "Get him, get them all now."

Long ingrained instincts, compulsions ground into him from years of training, took effect. The guard stomped forward, raising his fists.

"Can you run?" Tari asked.

As one, Karra, Mak, R'utano, and Tari turned and bolted down the long corridor. They could hear the booming footsteps of the guard thundering behind them.

"This way!" Karra turned down a smaller side corridor. Tari pushed Mak ahead of him as the weakened boy faltered. R'utano brought up the fore.

Another wall of transparasteel greeted them around a curve. Infinnnitara stood at the wall to her cell, her remaining pair of arms pushing against the transparent wall. Tari plunged his lightsaber into the control panel, waiting for the wall to slide away. Infi staggered out of her cell. Tari held her, wincing at the loss of two of her limbs and the pain that flashed across her face.

"This way," he whispered in her hair. "Hurry." He clipped his lightsaber to his belt.

Tohe followed the guard around the corner, the larger being slowing her down.

"Time to go." Tari lifted one of Infi's remaining arms around his shoulders and steered her down the hall. He reached into the Force, lending some of his strength to the weakened Jedi.

She struggled, her feet dragging on the floor. The guard drew closer, followed by the sickening hunger of Tohe. Tari paused long enough to pick up Infi, cradling her in his arms. Even burdened, he ran faster than the hulking guard.

But not faster than Tohe. She tackled him, pushing him onto the floor. The deactivated lightsaber rolled along the floor, coming to a rest next to the wall. Tohe grabbed his ponytail, pulling his head back. The guard rounded on the pair, pinning Infi down with a meaty hand. "Home, now, Jedi."

Tari reached behind his head, grabbing Tohe's shoulder. With a twist of his torso, and a few lost hairs, he flipped the slender hunter over his shoulder. She crashed into the guard. Undaunted, the guard stood his ground. Infi reached for Tohe's necklace, pulling the crystals from her neck.

Tohe yelled her anger, pulling herself from the guard.

Tari surged to his feet, standing over Infi. He kicked the guard's hand away from the fallen Jedi. "Time for us to leave." Infi nodded, reaching a hand up.

He pulled her to her feet, the guard staring at them both stupidly, before toppling over onto his side. R'utano saluted with his blaster, waving them on with his other hand. "It has been a pleasure," Tari said to the hunter, gathering Infi in his arms. "But I must go now."

"NO!" Tohe darted at him, fists clenched. Tari sidestepped her lunge. He sensed Infi reach for the Force, calling his lightsaber to her. Without another glance, Tari ran down the hall, Tohe hot on his heels.

"I don't think so." R'utano raised his blaster, sighting it on the pale being. "You have caused enough trouble."

"Don't kill her." Tari shifted Infi in his arms, "Tohe needs to be judged by the Senate."

"I know."

Tohe dodged the first blast, but the second, set on stun, clipped her across the shoulder. The hunter fell to the floor in a limp heap.

R'utano stood over her body, a sneer on his lips. "If it wasn't so important that she be tried by the Senate, I would kill here now."

Infinnnitara sadly regarded the crystals clenched in her hand. "We must hurry."

Mak leaned against Karra, the growing woman adding her strength to what was left of his. She whispered encouragement to him on waves of the Force. Mak looked up at her, grateful.

R'utano bound Tohe's arms behind her. With a grunt, he pulled her to her feet and flung her limp form over his shoulders. "Can you get us out of here?"

Tari closed his eyes, reaching into the Force. "This way."

The ragged group followed his lead, Karra wielding her Master's lightsaber. She took position just behind Tari, Mak behind her and R'utano bringing up the rear. A few times, Tari would pause at an intersection. Sometimes he would be getting his bearings, other times he was distracting the engineered guards that were now looking for them.

"A ship is not far," he panted. Karra could sense the strain in his arms, and Infi trying to lighten herself with the Force. But the injured Jedi was far too weak to be of much assistance. It was almost more that what she could do to hold her remaining arms in place and not drop the precious lightsaber crystals.

The airlock door was heavily guarded, a trio of very large, very heavily armed engineered hulking brutes of flesh blocking the corridor. Tari leaned on the wall just out of their view.

"Now what?" R'utano growled, shifting Tohe on his shoulder.

Mak hugged his arms to his chest, shaking. "I don't want to be caught again."

"You won't be," Tari stated strongly, sensing the terror in the young man's voice.

"How can you be so sure? Here we are, with them between us and the only way out!" Mak's harsh whisper burned in Karra's ears.

Karra placed a hand on his shoulder. "Mak, we will get out."

"How?"

"I have an idea." Karra eased by Tari to look down the hall at the brutes. "Master, could you tell them we are coming from the other direction?"

"Yes." Tari leaned his head against the wall. Karra could sense him reaching deep into the Force, sending tendrils of thought to the guards. They could hear them stop talking amongst themselves, pointing down the corridor in the wrong direction.

"Mak," Karra commanded softly. "Run ahead and open the airlock. I will cover you."

"But I can't!" Mak huddled behind R'utano.

The guard turned to glare at the shuddering boy. "Then we die," he growled.

Mak turned pale, sucking in a deep breath of air. "I will try."

"There is no try." Infi spoke up, a thin sheen of sweat on her brow.

"There is no try," Mak repeated, easing behind Karra. She was pleased that he could gather up what resources he had and come out with her. For a moment, Karra thought that the fear had taken over far too much of him for him to succeed. But she had faith in him, and so far, Mak had prevailed.

Karra held Tari's lightsaber in front of her, its brilliant white blade sheathed in its brushed silver handle. Without a word, she looked deep into Mak's eyes. Hidden inside was a deep, barely controlled fear. He took a deep breath, steeling himself. With a nod, he pushed past Karra and darted for the airlock door. Karra could hear the soft whisper of Tari's robes and R'utano's hand changing the setting on his blaster.

Mak plastered himself against the wall, one hand held shaking over the airlock controls. Karra pulled up next to him, whispering in his ear. "Just open the door, we will take care of everything else."

He chewed on his bottom lip, turning around to face the door, giving the misdirected guards furtive glances. So far, they had not been noticed. Fear made his fingers twitch. With a muffled curse, Mak breathed deeply, forcing himself to relax. He had to open the door, he had to free the others, and his knowledge was the key.

The Force rose to him, thin and shaky. Mak grabbed onto it with a greater sense of self-confidence. It strengthened him. Karra glanced at him, a small smile playing on the corners of her lips. The same smile she would give him just when she knew he was about to beat her in lightsaber practice. The same smile she had given him on the day she told him that she had been chosen as a Padawan.

The controls would not yield under his touch. "I can't get it," he cursed.

"Yes you can," Karra whispered back, the lightsaber tight in her grip.

"He shook his head, "I'm trying."

"Stop trying and just do it," she hissed in reply.

"How?"

"Trust the Force," Karra looked down the hall. The guards were beginning to discover the plot. Tari walked closer to them, Infi resting in his arms, but alert. R'utano brought up the rear, his blaster resting loosely in his hand.

Karra could sense his confidence faltering.

R'utano aimed the blaster at the back of one of the guards, Tohe still draped limply over one shoulder. "Hurry up, Jedi," he hissed, "I'd hate to waste energy on one of those brutes."

Mak nodded, focusing on the mechanism. "Almost got it." His slim fingers danced over the keypad. The door beeped once, a small, content noise, but loud enough to alert the guards to their presence.

The bright white light of Tari's lightsaber flashed into being, startling the guards and buying them a few precious seconds. Wordlessly, Mak ducked into the door, Tari and R'utano following. Karra blocked a blaster bolt from one of the guards before running in after them. Mak stood just inside the doorway, slamming the lock home with the palm of his hand.

It was a terse few seconds as the airlock cycled. A very large guard filled the viewport into the corridor, pounding on the locked door.

"Time to go," R'utano spoke up, turning and diving into the newly opened second door.

"Hurry," Infi pleaded, one arm wrapped around Tari's shoulders. He looked back at Karra, who nodded, before ducking into the docked ship.

Mak was the last one out of the airlock, and he ruined its mechanism with a deft stroke of his fingers. Karra could sense the Force wrench the components underneath the cover. R'utano had doffed his unconscious charge in one of the seats and vanished into the cockpit. "Hold on, it's gonna be a rough ride!" the guard's voice warned over the speaker.

"Karra, you man the weapons, I'm gonna help R'utano." The timid, fearful boy that Karra had rescued from the cell was no longer there. Mak commanded in a firm voice, the coveted Jedi tone that demanded immediate attention.

With a curt nod, Karra followed Mak to the cockpit, leaving Tari to secure Infinnnitara and Tohe in the passenger cabin.

The weapons consul was situated directly behind the pilot, the co-pilot next to him. Karra sat with her back to R'utano, the weapons consul laid out in front of her in a small arc. Lasers to her left, torpedoes to her right. She looked up at the targeting screen.

"Interceptors launching!" Mak passed his eyes over his console, a small screen projecting the blips of the interceptors. Karra could almost sense the sleek craft cutting through space.

"Got them," she called out, spotting the blips on her screen. Karra barely heard the docking clamps release, the ship shuddering as it lumbered out of its port.

R'utano and Mak piloted the ship like a well-trained team, Mak calling out warnings whenever it was necessary. Karra's fingers danced over her consul, brilliant blue lasers lancing out into the dark of space. She let the Force guide her shots, and soon blossoms of fire joined the lasers in space.

The green world of Ithlor screamed under them, blurring into a solid jade mass. Alarms sounded as the hull heated up, the friction against the atmosphere slowing them down.

"Hold on," R'utano said with remarkable calm, pulling up on his controls. The small ship, merely a collection of boxy shapes and a graceful wing, roared up, the friction suddenly gone. It streaked past the remaining three interceptors, one of Karra's lasers sending one spinning into the planet.

The ship screamed, its full power unleashed under R'utano's practiced hands. Mak spotted the enemies, calling the coordinates to Karra. The engines strained as they entered the gravity well of a moon, shuddering as an interceptor scored a hit on their aft shields. Their view was blocked by the bulk of the small moon, R'utano flying closer and closer to its surface.

"Hold on!" the now familiar phrase crackled over the comm system. Kemit's borrowed ship soared from a crater, taking out the last two interceptors. He downloaded hyperspace coordinates to the stolen ship.

R'utano signaled his readiness, pulling the ship out of the moon's gravity well, and both ships soared off into the mottled space of hyperspace.

Karra paced the length of the passenger cabin, hands clasped tightly behind her back. Tari snored softly, the lanky Jedi draped in a chair. Once free of the moon, Tari had coordinated Mak's and her own efforts towards healing Infinnnitara. The wounded Jedi slept in the ship's cramped quarters, her torso bound where her arms used to be.

Karra's pacing took her to the cockpit. R'utano guided the ship with a gentle hand, hyperspace flying past peacefully. Kemit's ship took up most of the forward viewscreen, the experimental Republic craft silver and sleek.

"Restless?" R'utano did not look up from his controls.

"Very much," she replied, easing into the co-pilot's seat, eyes still fixed on the lithe ship ahead of them.

"Thinking?" he prompted.

Karra sighed deeply. "Trying not to."

"I've rehearsed my statement to the Senate at least fifty times."

She smiled, small canines flashing for an instant. "Me to, at least as far as the Council is concerned."

"Good, nice to know I'm not the only one who talking to themselves."

"You should head Master Tari!" Karra sobered. "I can't help to wonder how someone like Tohe got away with what she did. And who was that doctor? He never told any of us his name."

"I've been talking to Kemit about that one." R'utano turned to look at her. "Seems he never dealt with that doctor much, usually he talked solely with Tohe."

"But he knows something."

The guard nodded. "He said he met the doctor once, when he was handing Mak over to Tohe. Of course, she was with him, but Tohe called him by name. So did one of the guards." R'utano chewed on his bottom lip, searching his memory. "I think Kemit pronounced it as 'Sayrks'. I think."

Karra's expression became dark. "Sarcx."

"Sounds like you know him."

"This Sarcx is following in the footsteps of three centuries worth of them." She spat the word out like venom. "Tari met up with one a few years ago, before he chose me as a Padawan. Then not too long ago, we met a female. Apparently, she's dead, since now we have this one."

"Sounds like something we need to stop."

"I had the feeling that you would say something like that." Karra ran a tired hand through her hair. "I think I will go sleep, my mind is finally tired of running in circles."

R'utano chuckled. "If Mak feels up to it, I could use a co-pilot while I sleep as well."

"I'll see to it," Karra yawned, pulling herself to her feet.

Infinnnitara looked down on the sleeping Tari. The Jedi's face was pale and drawn, eyes closed peacefully. He had extended so much of himself in his healing. She remembered hearing the healers commenting on his skill before Mar-Dhn had chosen him. Infi had no doubts that if he wasn't chosen as a Padawan, Tari would have become a very powerful healer. But the Force had other plans in for him.

She reached out one pale, slim hand, tracing the line of his jaw. He stirred in his sleep, but remained unconscious. His Padawan slept in the chair next to him, and Karra opened one sleepy jade eye to peer up at her. She grunted softly and closed her eye.

Karra always watched out for her Master. Infi smiled at the irony. He had done so much before he had met the fiery girl, and now he was the Master every initiate talked about having when they became old enough. Tari the Spineless had progressed far from his days in the Temple.

Infi nudged ever so slightly on Tari's mind, a gentle caress with the Force that most would not even sense. He shifted more in his sleep, furrowing his brow as he came awake. In his efforts, Tari would sacrifice the energy to power the shields that protected his mind to help. "Yoda would not be pleased with you," she whispered.

"Why not?" Tari didn't open his eyes. "And why are you not in bed?"

"Too hard." Infi sat down across the aisle, careful not to disturb her aching torso too much. "I want to thank you."

One sleepy gray eye peeked out from under the tousled hair. Infi continued speaking, her voice low. "I could sense the hunter coming, the hunger, the empty hate. In my dreams, I could still sense it." She clasped her hands in her lap, a tear tracing its way down her cheek.

Tari sat up, reaching to her with a reassuring wave of the Force. "You couldn't stop what happened as much as I could, Infinnnitara. I tasted the hate of Tohe as well." He placed a hand on her knee. "And I couldn't help Karra when I was on the ship. But I have to live with it, I did what I could do at the time. There wasn't anything else I could have done."

Infi unconsciously brushed the area under her armpits where her second set of arms used to be. "I still feel them," she said softly. "I know I can get replacements, but do I want to become a machine? Do I want to loose any more of myself?"

Tari squeezed her knee. "I don't presume to know what you are going through, but I can sense the pain inside. You need to overcome that before you can heal."

Infi looked at him, eyes brimming with tears. Tari held his arms out to her. With a quiet sob, she stepped across the aisle and fell into his arms, sobbing her pain into his shoulder.

He rubbed her back, his long fingers running through her pale hair. "You will heal from this, Infi. We all will."

She nodded, her face burrowed into his shoulder. If Karra was awake, she made to mention of it, staying curled up with her eyes closed. The Padawan's mind was calm, soothing. Tari continued, "We are here for you, Infinnnitara. Never forget that."

Tohe stood in front of the Council, head bowed and hands clasped behind her back. A dark tunic covered her frame, a shadow of the rich brown robes of the Jedi Masters. She could feel the watchful eyes of every single one of them. But the emerald eyes of the wrinkled being in front of her pinned her to the spot.

Yoda looked down on her from his chair, eyes narrowed. "Brought you here, I did." He motioned to the others in the room. "Weak in the Force, you are. What you know of your employer, tell us."

Tohe glanced up at him, breathing deeply. "I was hired to do my job," she replied, defiant.

"Asked that I did not." Yoda looked her over. "Fear in you, I sense."

The bounty hunter was surprised.

"Punish you for what you do, we will not. For the Senate, that is." Tohe raised her head. "What of Sarcx do you know?"

"He hired me a few months ago to capture Jedi. I don't know why, nor would it be in my place to ask."

Yoda nodded. "Truth, that is. Continue."

"I saw him each time I dropped off another Jedi, but never for very long. He was quite secretive, more like paranoid."

"Sense the Force, did you?"

Tohe looked down at the floor. She knew she was Force-sensitive, and had used that trait to catch her prey on more than one occasion. But now, now Yoda was asking her to look within herself, to hunt down something inside. "I am not sure."

The small being chortled, a surprising sound, considering the reasons for her being in the Council chambers in the first place. "Deep inside, you must look. Much time, you will have for that."

"The Senate."

Yoda nodded again, "Pleased they are not with your part in the Jedi's capture. Retribution, there will be."

"I know."

Yoda motioned to the guards. "Ready for the Senate, she is. Report everything she says to us."

The guards saluted smartly, ushering Tohe out of the room.

Infinnnitara waited outside of the Council chambers, watching Tohe being led to her fate. "Knew what was coming, she did." Yoda stood in the doorway. He looked up at her. "Healing, you are."

"I don't feel the healing, not inside."

"Understand, I do." Yoda shuffled out of the room, walking down the hallway. He bade Infi to walk with him. "Old I am, much I have seen."

Infi stayed quiet, waiting for Yoda to gather his thoughts.

"A Jedi is strong, in mind and body." The small being stopped by the corridor to the gardens. "Meditate, you must. Learn to trust what you have and fear not what was taken. The decision is for you to make."

She looked down the corridor, chewing on her bottom lip.

Tari was meditating in the gardens, a butterfly dancing in the sunlight near his head. He looked up at Infinnnitara approached.

Without a word, she sat next to him, shoulders touching. She needed to feel him, needed to feel the heat of another that she could trust. Needed to feel his support.

Infi breathed deeply, a calming Jedi exercise. But it was not working. Every time she closed her eyes, the horror of her missing arms rushed back to her. She wrapped her remaining arms around her shoulders, shaking slightly.

Tari reached out to her with the Force, a gentle, soothing wave of pure emotion. He didn't care how many arms she had, she was still a Jedi. Still his friend.

The dam within her burst, and she collapsed into his arms, sobbing her pain into his chest.

Mak breathed in deeply, releasing the breath in a long, slow whisper. Mar-Aroon sat in front on him, his clear blue eyes boring into his Padawan.

"What is it that you see?" Mar-Aroon was not Human, his eyes lacked separate whites or pupils, his hair long and deeply purple. It hung down his erect back in a thick braid. Purple stripes peeked out from the edges of his clothing.

"My sight is clouded," confusion tinted Mak's voice.

"You have been through much," Mar-Aroon placed a slim hand on Mak's forearm. "Do not shove it aside, face it, learn from it. Let it make you stronger."

Mak nodded, eyes closed in concentration. "I don't know how."

"Don't fight it, don't seek it. Let it come to you."

The young Human sighed, hanging his head. "I can't, Master. There's just too much."

"There is much, but do not let your fear overcome you." Mar-Aroon squeezed Mak's arm. "Look within yourself, trust yourself." He held Mak's face, forcing the young man to look at him. "Trust the Force and trust me."

"That will take a long time, Master," Mak grinned weakly.

"I know." Mar-Aroon pulled his hand away. "But I am prepared to wait for as long as you need me too."

Karra bent over the worktable, the innards for her lightsaber strewn across the pitted surface. With a surgeon's care, she placed each component, every small bit of circuitry. Her old lightsaber no longer suited her. It was a sleek, hematite tube, ready to fight at the merest impulse.

She was no longer the same person she was when Tari chose her as a Padawan. She had learned patience, even though she still had to fight her impulsive tendencies. With a flick of her head, she flung her long Padawan braid over her shoulder.

The lightsaber was almost complete. For over a week Karra and her friends had healed, learned from their imprisonment. Now more than ever, Karra valued the bond that Jedi were capable of having.

She held up her crystal, freed from its own imprisonment at the hands of Tohe. It glittered in all the shades of blue. Karra remembered the day it had been given to her.

A small transport had just landed near the Temple. Inside its hold were three new initiates. Karra had watched it drift gracefully in, hidden behind the robes of a Jedi Master whose duties included caring for new Jedi.

A boy, no more than three years old, peeked his head out of the ship. His bright blue eyes scanned the assembled Jedi and initiates. He was herded out of the ship, the only initiate old enough to be walking, but still young enough to be trained. He was full of fear, fear at leaving his home, and a fear of being somewhere new. The very young Karra, no more than a year older, had toddled up to him, hand held out in greeting.

"Hi, I'm Karra."

The boy took a hesitant step back, wringing his hands. "Mak," he whispered.

"Mak," Karra chewed the new name through her head. "Will you be my friend?"

Mak brightened at the unexpected request. "Okay!" He reached into a deep pocket. "My momma gave me this. But I think you should have it." It was a beautiful blue crystal. "My momma gave me lots of these."

"Thank you," she had replied, accepting her gift.

From then on, they were inseparable, but each knew that one of them would leave. Karra was the first, chosen and trained by Tari. Mak followed a year later.

With a smile, the now much older Karra placed the crystal into the lightsaber. It was the final component. She sealed the tube shut, running her hand along the casing.

The new lightsaber was still sleek, graceful with its angled bands of hematite and brushed silver. Etched into the hematite bands in Mak's native tongue was a poem, a sad simple tune she heard long ago on a frozen world.

"Dancing on the winds, the heartbeat of my friend. Beats in the roots, the soul of my friend. Swims in the water, the eyes of my friend. Grows among the trees, the soul of my friend."

With a flourish, she ignited the weapon.

The blade itself was still blue, but everything else about it had changed. The tip was a bright, clear aqua, the base a deep, vibrant azure. She held back a startled gasp.

"Nice lightsaber," Tari quipped from the doorway.

"Thank you," Karra did not take her eyes from her weapon.

"It suits you better." He walked into the room, hands clasped behind his back.

"What will happen now?" Karra powered down her lightsaber, turning her vibrant green eyes on her Master.

"Tohe will answer for what she had done. She will serve a long prison sentence deep within the core of Coruscant." He did not seem pleased with the news. But Tohe had to pay for what she did, and even the pacifist Tari had to agree that her punishment fit her crime.

"What about that Doctor?" She shuddered at the though of the vile man.

Tari sat down across from her. "He is far more dangerous than Tohe. All we did to him was removed from his service an effective tool. Every Jedi is on alert for him. Especially us, Mak, and Infinnnitara."

"Because we saw him," Karra supplied.

"Because we saw him," Tari sighed deeply. "Next to the Dark Side, Sarcx is the single greatest threat to the Jedi."

Karra stood, arranging the tools on the workbench. Tari watched her patiently. "He has to be stopped, everything 'Sarcx' has to be stopped." She closed the lid on a toolbox with a definitive click. "To not stop him…" she paused, unwilling to voice the concern that had been at the forefront of many Jedi's minds.

"To not stop him would allow the Dark Side to take over our world," Tari finished for her. He placed a hand on her shoulder. "We won't let that happen."

"I know." She stared down at the table, her eyes tracing the scratches that marred the surface.

Epilogue

Tohe stood on the ramparts of one of the buildings of Coruscant. Her long hair whipped around her face. A bracelet wrapped itself around one ankle. To leave this building would set off countless alarms. And to set off the alarms meant death. The Jedi had taken her freedom. And freedom was something the bounty hunter valued deeply.

She would not forgive him.

Tohe glared out over the glittering spires. She had new prey.